With touches of sage green and vintage taupe Amy & Katie’s Glorious Garden Wedding In Port Stephens, captured by Wild Wattle Photography, is romantic and fun all mixed into one! The long-time lovers planned their day in record time and were surrounded by their nearest and dearest in the aptly named Heaven Garden in Port Stephens. Amy tells us about their love story..

In 2008, I had a broken leg and out of boredom made a Myspace account. I added Katie as a friend because she had on her profile that she liked the movie ‘Drop Dead Fred’ which was a childhood favourite of mine. Fast forward a week of nonstop talking and we organised a date at my house. Since I wasn’t able to go anywhere, so my best friend dropped off some food and drinks for the date and Katie never left! Katie said when she pulled up at my house she just had a feeling that as soon as I opened my door, her life would change.

The first time Katie proposed, (yes, you read that right. There were numerous proposals! Ha!) we had not been together long. We were staying in a beautiful cabin out near Wollombi amongst the mountains, nothing around us and after we had finished dinner, Katie brought out a heart shaped cake that the venue had organised for her, which had “Will you Marry Me” written on the top.. We ate the cake but I did not accept Katie’s proposal! I (Amy) had previously been married very young (19), we were 27 when we got together and I had no intentions of getting married ever again. Katie understood this however she persevered. Over the years Katie had asked a few more times, each with the same answer. Fast forward 10 years, I became very sick and went on a journey to better health. Multiple surgeries and many hospital stays and Katie was by my side every step of the way. How could I not marry her?! I opened a small business just prior to Christmas 2021 and Katie was helping me set it up in a shopping centre. We walked past a jewellery shop and I said to her, “You know what… I would like to marry you” and we brought a ring there and then on the spot. We were married 2 months later!

I (Amy) brought a dress from the very first bridal shop I went into. I thought my options would be limited due to the fact I was getting married on very short notice and there was not enough time to order in a dress. I made an appointment with my mum to visit Belles and Beaux in Newcastle, There was a beautiful woman who helped me try on many gowns, I had no idea what kind of gown I wanted so she took me around the store and asked me my thoughts on a few different styles so we could determine what kind of style I would like. I really loved the ones with an open back and a fitted bodice. She chose quite a few for me to try on. I fell in love with the very first gown I tried on. I tried on many following that one – some I even tried on twice and it was absolutely no trouble for the lady to do that for me, but when I put that first one back on, both my mum and I just looked at each other and knew it was the one for me. Given my circumstances on such short notice they let me buy that dress straight off the rack.

We had one beautiful bridesmaid – our darling daughter Lara-Jane, who selected her own dress a gorgeous Shona Joy dress in Sage Green. We had 4 little flower girls the youngest of our nieces who wore a floor-length cream dress from A Little Lacey.

I (Katie) can’t say I am a traditional bride and definitely knew that I wouldn’t suit a dress, as I usually wear quite masculine clothes. I knew I wanted to wear some kind of a relaxed suit (no tie). I went shopping with some friends who had seen Amy’s dress so that they could help me select something that would go with it. We scoured many shops and came across a cream suit down the back corner of a store and it ended up being the perfect colour choice and style for me.

We were married on Friday the 25th February at Heaven Gardens Salt Ash. It was the only day in weeks that it DID NOT rain! It was just magical.

We wanted to be married under an arbour filled with flowers and an aisle lined with them. We chose to go with beautiful toffee, white and green tones to compliment the space and colours we had chosen for our reception space. Newcastle Flower Markets sourced some beautiful columbian toffee roses and paired them with floaty white veronica, vendela roses, some beautiful olive and magnolia foliage and nestled them amongst other beautiful flowers and foliage to create the most beautiful romantic blooms.

We had our own songs to walk down the aisle to, and we walked down the aisle separately with our parents. Katie and her parents walked down the aisle first to an instrumental of “Ridin’ Roads” by Dustin Lynch, followed by our flower girls who walked down the aisle to the Little Mermaid’s “Kiss The Girl”. This was supposed to be the Brent Morgan version but added a quirky twist when Sebastian the crab’s version played instead! Our daughter the bridesmaid, Amy, and her parents walked down the aisle to Gwen Stefani and Blake Sheldon’s “Nobody But You”.

We had the most amazing celebrant – Mel Roszko aka Mary Me Mel, who included so many wonderful surprises that were both quite quirky and funny. She knew we did not want the ceremony to take too long, or be boring. She made it so unique and fun! We did not want any readings, but she injected so much of our individual personalities into our ceremony that it just really made it so special for us!

 

We had the very talented Kirrilly from Wild Wattle Photography. We selected her based on her Instagram profile and really fell in love with the tones and how well she captured special moments in her photographs. We were quite awkward in front of the camera but she really made us feel comfortable and before we knew it 500+ photos later just went so quickly as we were so at ease. She was probably the most organised person I’ve ever met.

 

The jumping castle from Stella Events was so much fun! We had lots of kids at our wedding and we wanted them to have fun too – and of course Florence the caravan bar from Memory Lane Wedding and Events for the adults! A good bar is essential!

We thought we had found the perfect location, however, less than 3 weeks before the wedding I had seen a post on a Hunter Valley Wedding FB page, of a girl looking for a DJ for the same date and location as our wedding! I quickly called the venue to check if they had double booked our date and they had! We were devastated. They didn’t even realise! That post had been up for 5 days so call it divine intervention that we saw it and were able to look for somewhere else. The following day, we drove down to Port Stephens from the Hunter Valley and inspected other venues which were available for our date. As soon as we stepped foot in our new venue we were just in awe of how beautiful it was. We hadn’t even known this place existed. We are so thankful for the first venue making such a mistake because we couldn’t have imagined a better place for our wedding!

Heaven Gardens really lives up to its name, what really sold it for us was the multiple areas throughout the gardens for our wedding photos. From a rainforest garden to beautifully sculpted hedges, a boardwalk over the water, and of course the lush reception space that flowed onto the gardens. The vendors are so lovely and accommodating.

We wanted something very laid back and fun as we had been together almost 14 years. We wanted lots of flowers in toffee and white/cream to tie in with the honey undertone of my gown, The colour green to accessorize our wedding to tie in with our bridesmaid dress. Our venue was amongst gardens so it really set the scene. There was plenty of space for our jumping castle, caravan bar, trampoline, lawn games, and photo booth. The reception space flowed into the gardens that lit up so magical, it very much reminded us of a beautiful hawaiian luau we had been to whilst travelling in Hawaii. The cocktails were flowing, the singing from our live duo, Teasha & Mari, really added to the atmosphere, and everyone was having such a great time!

Heaven Gardens is a DIY venue, so we sourced all our vendors externally with some help from the Heaven Garden team who found us the best caterer and live music duo! We had a lolly bar in green and white which we did ourselves the morning of the wedding as well as set up the tablescape with the help from the lovely Heaven Gardens team. We had a balloon wall installation with a neon sign and some greenery hanging from the roof by the lovely Lauren at Stella Events who also styled our awesome jumping castle and of course Jess and the team from Newcastle Flower Markets who did all the floral table centrepieces.

It’s so hard to choose just one vendor that stood out as we had many wonderful vendors! I would have to say Florence the Caravan Bar – Nathan and Alicia from Memory Lane Weddings and Events really went above and beyond for us. They even did a bottle shop run for us during the reception, participated in our photobooth, and made sure we both were always right for a drink!

We loved sourcing all the vendors and finding all the items to help bring my vision to life. Seeing it all come together was just amazing!

We were blown away by how beautiful everything looked together and our first look at each other from opposite ends of the aisle. We can’t forget getting all our lovely photos with our family and friends, some beautiful moments were captured.

We were not planning on having a first dance, however, Katie had asked Amy’s uncle Will to sing ‘Two Less Lonely People’. When he got up and sang that – his own wedding song – it created such a special moment for us and we got that first dance after all.

The day goes by so fast and can be so stressful leading up to it, if you are looking for perfection you will never find it, there’s bound to be a hiccup but just roll with it and don’t let it take anything away from your special day. Enjoy every moment!

Thanks to Amy & Katie for letting us peek inside their stunning day! And to Wild Wattle Photography for sharing their gorgeous photos!